Postcolonialism is a method of evaluating and analyzing a literary piece. Alfred Sauvy first developed the theory during the 1950s when he created the term “third world” to refer to developing countries. The opposite, “first world,” countries usually referred to countries in Europe and North America whereas third world countries were usually referred to those located in South America and Africa. Evaluating the power structure, it is easy to see that first world countries influenced, dominated, and colonized third world countries. The colonialism that is referred to is not solely political, but also cultural. When using the postcolonialism method to analyze literature, the cultural aspect is what postcolonialism looks to evaluate. Three things to look for are mimicry (how the colonized society copies the colonizer), universalism, eurocentrism, (feelings of superiority of the colonizer), hybridity (mixture or combination of cultures) and others. The movement grew in the 1990s and become more widespread.
La llegada de Colón, por Alejo Carpentier es un cuento sobre la vida de Colón (un europeo) durante de su descubrimiento del “Nuevo Mundo” y después del descubrimiento con reflexiones. El cuento se escribe de la perspectiva de Colón, un colonizador. A través su explanación sobre sus intenciones y sus experiencias, es evidente que el tema de eurocentrismo y su superioridad existe con tres referencias: la comparación de Colón y Jesús, la cambia de lenguaje a cosas que refieren a cosas europeas, y la actitud en general de Colón sobre los indios como personas extrañas.